Turned Project

These four bowls were made from lumber salvaged from a tree in the neighborhood. My son heard the chainsaw and we drove around until we found it. The photos don’t show size very well…the 4th bowl is about 12” in diameter and the others are about 8” in diameter.

Yep…I turned them about 2 hours after they were cut out of the tree. The tree guy said it was amber wood but I don’t know. What I do know is there was so much moisture in the wood there was as streak of water across the garage and my shirt was soaked when I was done with it. The hollow turning ended up being one of my favorites and I was very happy it didn’t crack. I have 4 or 5 more from the same tree but I don’t like them as much and they aren’t nearly finished. I had to put them all in a display cabinet which has a single light bulb in it which allowed them to dry slowly.

Very nice bowls and you are quick at it too! I also started using spray Deft and really like it. It seems to level out much better than Rustoleum lacquer. I found that after a few coats, I wet sand with 400 waterproof paper a lot and then give it one final finish coat and it has virtually no orange peel.

I have to try a natural edge bowl. I tried one once and the wood must have been too dry and all the bark flew off at me. It was a barkless bowl after that!!

-- Jim Jakosh.....Practical Wood Products...........Learn something new every day!! Variety is the Spice of Life!!

Jim…yeah you have to watch for flying bark when doing the natural edge bowls. If the wood is wet it’s less likely to come off but it still does. If you look closely at some of the natural edge bowls I have posted there are small chunks missing.

I currently work as a construction consultant but prior to this I worked for The Hartford as a property claims adjuster. I was dispatched to a hail storm last year in Colorado and I saw too many trees being cut up into firewood. I was at one house and the home owner came out to see me standing in front of a neat pile of silver maple logs…she asked me if I needed any firewood and I looked at her…took my roofing crayon out of my pocket and began drawing the shape of bowls in the ends of the logs… She understood my pain. Too bad I flew out to that disaster or I would have had a truckload of beautiful wood to turn when I got home.

Because of my work I hear about pretty much every disaster if it happens from South American to Canada. I’ve often thought about buying a portable saw mill and drag it along with me. There are thousands of board feet of lumber that just goes to waste in a storm like the one in Colorado… and the wood is pretty much free. If you are licensed you can actually get PAID by the insurance carriers to remove the trees from the insured property. The key is the policy typically does not cover the disposal or removal of the tree once it is on the ground. Nor does the policy typically offer any coverage if the tree is just laying on the ground and not on insured property (ground is not insured) so people are usually happy if someone will remove it for them. How’s that for cheap wood.

As for the wine question… I’m not sure about that but I have a few finish guys I work with that might know the answer so I’ll see what I can dig up.

Thanks for reading my post…(by the way…I may live in California but I grew up in Salem and I still consider the Northwest my home).